


The Grendel

by pigeonking



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 16:38:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10312571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pigeonking/pseuds/pigeonking
Summary: This story is inspired by the epic old English poem about Beowulf. The Grendel in my story are a species rather than an individual and you'll be seeing more of them in some of my other Who stories...





	

The wind whistling through Heorot hall sounded like a dozen banshees flying through the tall wooden rafters, but Hrothgar, king of the Danes, did not fear banshees. There was something far worse at large this night and at this very moment it was hammering on his door, seeking to gain entrance as it had done on previous other nights. This was the fifth such incursion. Every time it was the same; the creature, Grendel, would come and it would lay about his warriors, devouring some of them where they stood and taking others away with it, presumably to consume later from the safety of its lair.

Now it was coming again and Hrothgar was powerless to do anything to stop it.

As the door splintered open (it had not stood long as it had only been erected this morning to replace the one destroyed in the last attack) Hrothgar rose from his throne and left through a side entrance. He could not sit and watch his men being slaughtered again.

 

The wind still howled on the beach the following morning. The waves were restless as if serpents writhed beneath them and seagulls circled aimlessly among the grey clouds. Suddenly a different sound split the air competing with the wind for dominance. As the new sound screamed louder a blue box faded slowly into existence, a beacon of light flashing on its head until the screeching stopped and the box became solid.

A few short moments later a door on the box opened and three strangely clad figures stepped out. The first was a small man with a mop of unruly black hair, wearing an oversized black frock coat and baggy checked trousers; secondly there was a young dark haired man dressed in a sheepskin waistcoat over a white shirt. His outfit was completed by a traditional Highlander’s kilt and sporran.

The third and final figure was a very pretty young dark haired girl. Her hair was tied back in a bun and she was wearing a brown velvet riding jacket with beige jodhpurs, tucked into knee high black riding boots.

“Another beach, Doctor! Och, you’re not going to go swimming again are ye?” the young man spoke to the little man, his voice carried a distinct Scottish burr.

“Perhaps not this time, Jamie.” The Doctor replied, though he was visibly disappointed, “I think perhaps it’s a touch too cold on this occasion, don’t you?”

“That didn’t stop you last time!” the young girl, Victoria, teased.

“Well I rather think we won’t have time for much swimming this time.” The Doctor replied staring off across the beach.

“Why do ye say that?” asked Jamie, and then he looked where the Doctor was looking and he saw the party of armed warriors riding down the beach towards them.

“Oh dear!” cried Victoria, “Shouldn’t we get back inside the TARDIS?”

“Now don’t be quite so hasty, Victoria. They might not mean us any harm.” The Doctor assured her with a pat on the shoulder.

Jamie took in the sight of the mounted warriors bedecked in their heavy armour and bristling with spears and shields.

“Aye, well they don’t look verra friendly to me!” he opined, clutching at the Doctor’s arm nervously.

Nevertheless, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria stood their ground with their backs against the TARDIS doors, just in case they needed to make a quick getaway.  

The horses bearing their fearsome riders drew nearer until the leader, a big man wearing many gold and silver arm rings and wearing golden plated armour, brought his horse to a jittering stop just in front of the three time travellers.

“I am Hrothgar, King of the Danes, and I welcome you to my shores, brave hero.” Hrothgar looked the Doctor up and down and scowled beneath his eagle feather plumed helmet. “Though you are not quite what I was expecting.”

“Why, thank you for your most kind welcome, your Majesty.” The Doctor smiled and performed a sort of half bow, half curtsey; “May I ask who it is you think I am?”

“There can be no doubt, given the magical nature of your arrival that you are none other than He, the mighty Beowulf himself… come to slay my monster!” Hrothgar declared.

The Doctor’s expression twisted into one of comical disbelief.

“I knew we shoulda gone back into the TARDIS!” Jamie muttered darkly.

 

Three of Hrothgar’s warriors gave up their horses at their king’s request to enable the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria to ride back to Heorot with their heavily armed entourage. The Doctor wobbled in his saddle as he clung on for dear life, his arms wrapped tightly around the poor horse’s neck as if he were giving it a hug. Jamie and Victoria seemed more comfortable with their steeds and they couldn’t help laughing at the Doctor’s antics.

“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’d really rather walk!” the Doctor called desperately as he tightened his embrace on his stallion’s neck.

“Nonsense, Beowulf! You are an honoured guest at my hall and as such you will ride with us!” Hrothgar insisted. He hoped that Beowulf would not throttle one of his finest stallions before they found the shelter of the hall. The tales of the Geat hero’s strength were renowned.

One of Hrothgar’s men, a bearded behemoth named Valdemar, sidled up alongside the king so that he may talk as quietly with him as horse travel would allow.

“Are you quite sure that this gamle stodder is the great Beowulf, my lord?” he asked with an incredulous glance in the Doctor’s direction.

“Who else could it be? We knew that Beowulf was coming. You saw how he arrived and you know the tales as well as I do.” Hrothgar reminded him.

“Aye, that I do. Yet the tales tell nothing of a ship that travels without sail; that appears as if by magic.” Valdemar reminded him.

“No they do not.” Hrothgar conceded, “But do you have any other explanation for what you saw with your own eyes? It is clear that Beowulf is blessed by Odin and we must accept it. It can only serve to aid us, can it not?”

Valdemar nodded his agreement and spurred his horse onwards.

 

Very soon they arrived at Heorot and the Doctor was ecstatic to be once again upon solid ground.

They all entered the great hall and as they passed through the great doorway, the Doctor grimly noted the team of carpenters working hard to get a new door made.

Hrothgar stood before his throne and stripped off his armour before sitting down, a serving girl bringing him a flagon of mead. Beneath his armour the king was wearing an expensive looking blue tunic and around his neck he wore a gold chain that carried a magnificent red stone ornately carved with mysterious runes which gave the Doctor cause to scowl when he noticed them.

His men had already seated themselves around the huge feasting table and the three time travellers stood awkwardly waiting to be invited to sit also.

“Please, honoured, Beowulf, be seated at my right hand!” Hrothgar gestured for the Doctor to take up the bench next to him.

“And what of my friends?” the Doctor asked.

“Friends?” Hrothgar frowned, “They are not your slaves?”

“Certainly not!” the Doctor huffed indignantly.

“Aye that’s right! We’re not the Doctor’s slaves!” Jamie protested.

Valdemar leaned forward menacingly on his bench.

“Why did the boy call you Doctor, lord Beowulf?” he rumbled.

The Doctor’s hands fidgeted as he searched for an answer, his cheeks inflating and deflating like a cornered puffer-fish.

“Doctor is an honoured title among the Geats!” Victoria announced, coming to the Doctor’s rescue.

“Is that so?” Hrothgar replied, turning his gaze upon the pretty young Victorian girl. “And what do they call you, my young maiden?”

“My name is Victoria. Victoria Waterfield.” She stammered, suddenly nervous. Victoria was all of a sudden extremely conscious of the fact that she was surrounded by burly, hairy Danish warriors.

“Such a beautiful name!” Hrothgar smiled. “Come, Lady Victoria. You must sit at my left side.”

He patted the bench next to him on his left. As he did so a tall, beautiful, regal looking woman dressed in a long flowing blue dress, with long fiery red hair entered from a side chamber, a mischievous smile upon her face and a twinkle in her sapphire blue eyes.

“Perhaps, husband you should introduce me to your guests before you start offering them my seat at the table.” She teased as she approached Hrothgar and kissed him on his bearded cheek.

A delighted grin broke out on the king’s grizzled features and he rose to embrace his queen.

“Forgive me, Doctor Beowulf, Victoria and …” he looked at Jamie, “Boy?”

“The name’s Jamie!” the young Scot bristled.

Hrothgar nodded respectfully before continuing. “Please let me introduce you to my beautiful wife, Wealhtheow.”

Wealhtheow curtseyed to the three time travellers with a gracious smile while holding her husband’s hand.

As she took up the seat next to her husband, the Doctor and his friends also took their seats. The Doctor sat next to the king, Victoria next to the queen, while Jamie took a seat next to Valdemar.

Wealhtheow regarded the Doctor curiously.

“So you are the great Beowulf, come to free us from Grendel’s tyranny?” she asked, but there was no disdain or mocking in her tone.

“Well, I’ll do what I can.” The Doctor replied modestly. “What can you tell me about this Grendel, my lord Hrothgar?” A serving woman offered him a horn of mead, but the Doctor declined with a kind smile.

“Our troubles began five nights ago. We were feasting here in this very hall, as we would any other night. This was not to be like any other night. It was late; many of my warriors were embracing the table in drunken stupor, those that were not under it that is!” Hrothgar’s men roared with laughter at this comment and the king was forced to allow the merriment to subside before he continued.

“I was about to turn in when there came a thunderous knocking on the great doors, as though great Thor himself wished entry into my hall. We thought that perhaps a guest was calling upon our hospitality, even at such an ungodly hour and one of my warriors had wits enough about him to rise and open the doors to admit the stranger. No sooner than the doors were opened than my man, it was young Svend as I recall, was seized by a mighty hand as big, if not bigger, as he was. The owner of that hand strode into the hall, his great fist closed around Svend’s head. The creature stood over eight feet tall, it had to bow to enter Heorot, but it certainly was not out of respect to me! Whatever he was he was not a man. More like a troll or a giant. His other arm, the one not grasping Svend, his right I believe, was not of flesh and blood, but was hewn out of some mighty metal and the tip of this arm carried a bolt of Thor’s lightning, though how this beast came by it I know not!

“’Who are you? Why have you come to my hall?’ I asked it. By that time we were all on our feet, the effects of the mead having fled us all. Yet we were ill prepared for such a fiend. You may know that it is our custom not to bring weapons into the feasting hall other than what we would eat with, as warriors in the thrall of mead are a danger to themselves and others. If a brawl breaks out it is best not to mix swords and seaxs into the cauldron, don’t you agree?

“’I am Grendel!’ the beast declared in its fell voice and that was all it said before raising poor Svend to his terrible lips.”

“It ate him?” the Doctor gasped.

Hrothgar nodded. “It did. Svend was but the first. Grendel came on in to the hall. With his one hand he plucked another of my men and with other he unleashed his lightning, striking down two others. Grendel devoured the man he had hold of whilst smiting another of my warriors with his lightning.

Three good men lay stricken by this terrible magic. Grendel seized these three and placed them within a sack that he carried upon his back, and then he turned to leave. It could have ended then that night, but I was not prepared to let this monster depart without a challenge. Only a king is allowed to retain his sword at the feasting table and so I drew my blade and stepped towards the monster.

‘Stay, Grendel! You shall not leave while Hrothgar still draws breath!’ I challenged.

The beast turned its mighty head to me and I dare say that I saw amusement in those bestial features. Grendel raised his lightning arm to point at me, but then seemed to pause. Those fiery eyes regarded me intensely, burning deep into my soul and then the beast seemed to change his mind and he turned once again to leave.

‘Come back and fight me, coward!’ I called after the beast, but to no avail. I pursued Grendel to try and press the matter, but the creature’s stride with those mighty legs was too great for me and it was away into the forest, headed towards the marshes, before I could catch it. Since then it has come every night, eating some men and taking others, yet always avoiding me. Why won’t it face me, Doctor Beowulf?” Hrothgar asked as he finished his tale.

The Doctor had sat listening intently with steepled fingers throughout the story, but now he was sat up straight and alert.

“Tell me, my lord, where did you get that stone that you’re wearing around your neck?”

Hrothgar fingered the red gem on its gold chain.

“This? I found it six nights ago before the coming of Grendel. It was in the marshes. Would you believe me, Doctor Beowulf, if I told you that a piece of the rainbow bridge that spans the gap between Midgard and Asgard, fell to earth? I and several of my men saw it in the twilight hours as the sun was coming down. A fire came down from the heavens and landed in the marshes. We rode to investigate. By the time we arrived there was no fire to be seen, but I did find this!” Hrothgar handed the stone to the Doctor so that he might examine it.

The Doctor took out a pawn broker’s monocle from his pocket and placed it on his eye before turning his attention to the rune carved stone, turning it over in his hands and he inspected every detail.

“Yes I see.” He mumbled to himself before handing the stone back to Hrothgar.

The king returned the chain around his neck.

“What do you see? Is that stone the reason that Grendel plagues us? If he wants it then why does he not take it from me?” Hrothgar wondered.

“Oh I don’t think that it is especially important that Grendel possesses the stone,” the Doctor mused, “Only that the stone doesn’t get damaged. That is why Grendel dare not harm you, my lord. It is because to harm you would risk harming the stone and he needs that to be in one piece.”

“But why?” the king asked.

The Doctor searched his brain to try and find a way to explain that the king would understand.

“The fire that you saw falling from the sky six nights ago was not a piece of the rainbow bridge, but rather it was a… a sky ship landing in the marshes, quite possibly crash landing. I would imagine that by the time that you got there the ship had already sunk into the swamp and this stone came from it. It is a beacon sending out a signal so that other sky ships will come and rescue the occupant of the one that has fallen.” The Doctor explained.

“But if the creature merely wishes to be rescued then why has it attacked us?” Wealhtheow wondered.

“Well, the king has told us that Grendel ate some of his men. I believe that it has attacked you for the express purpose of feeding itself. Whatever this creature is it is certainly a carnivore; that much is clear.” The Doctor replied distastefully.

“And those it took?” Hrothgar pressed.

“Were to be consumed later I would imagine.” The Doctor replied.

“So giving Grendel the stone will not appease him. Until he is rescued he will continue to come and devour my warriors.” Hrothgar realised.

“Which is precisely why I have to stop him!” the Doctor replied with grim determination.

“If you are to do so then you will need armour and weapons. I trust they are on your ship? Perhaps it would have been prudent to bring them with you?” Hrothgar said with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh my goodness, no! I shan’t be needing any weapons or armour. But it would be useful to have the TARDIS, that is, my ship. There are some items in there that I think might come in use.” The Doctor clasped his hands and rubbed them together gleefully before fixing Hrothgar with a pleading smile. “I don’t suppose you could send some of your men to fetch it for me, could you?”

Hrothgar nodded. “Valdemar, take a handful of men with a cart and some horses and fetch Doctor Beowulf’s ship.”

Valdemar rose from the bench and bowed before leaving to carry out his orders.

“Splendid!” the Doctor declared with a cheerful gleam in his eyes, “Now all we have to do is wait for the TARDIS to arrive and then we can put my plans into action.”

 

Two hours later the TARDIS had been brought to the village on the back of a horse drawn cart. On its arrival the Doctor had bounded gleefully onto the back of the cart and disappeared into the time machine. Jamie and Victoria had waited patiently for nearly half an hour, declining offers of mead from the serving girls, reluctantly on Jamie’s part. He felt that he would need his wits about him for whatever the Doctor had in mind. When the Doctor did emerge he was laden down with a coil of what looked like a length of brown leather rope.

“You were in there half an hour for that?” Jamie remarked incredulously.

The Doctor looked a little hurt. “Well I couldn’t find it could I! You know how big the TARDIS is and I haven’t needed to use this since… well… I haven’t needed to use it.” The Doctor replied defensively.

“What is it?” Victoria asked.

“It’s a length of non-conductive leather rope, made from the hide of a Vithalian Vunglervok. It was given to me as a gift on one of my previous adventures.” The Doctor explained.

“A Vither-what? What on Earth do ye need that for?” Jamie wondered.

“Well, its non-conductive and by the description given by King Hrothgar I would surmise that our Grendel friend is using an electrical based weapon to stun those that he wishes to consume later.” The Doctor told him.

“So how’s that stuff going to help?” Jamie was still unclear on the details of the Doctor’s plan.

The Doctor smiled and tapped his nose. “All in good time, Jamie. I wonder if you could try and enlist the services of Valdemar and some of his friends to help us, hmm?”

“Oh alright.” Jamie agreed, “But I don’t think he likes me much.”

“You’ll just have to win him over, won’t you, Jamie. Come along now, chop, chop… we haven’t got all day.” And with those words of encouragement from the Doctor, Jamie went away to do just that.

 

Jamie found Valdemar deep into a horn of mead in the great hall. The young Scot approached the huge man carefully and nudged him on the shoulder to get his attention.

Valdemar turned his head slowly to look up at Jamie with drunken eyes.

“What do you want, boy?” the warrior asked.

Jamie swallowed his anger and remembered what he was there for.

“The Doctor needs help preparing for the coming of the monster tonight.”

“Then why can’t he come and tell me? Why must he send his boy?” Valdemar had turned around completely now and he was looking Jamie up and down with unconcealed disdain. “If indeed you are a boy. I don’t think I have seen a boy wearing skirts before.”

“It’s called a kilt! It carries the colours of my clan, the clan McCrimmon and I wear them with pride. I think ye’ll find I’m more of a man than you are!” Jamie riled angrily, “No wonder ye cannae beat the wee beastie if ye drink so much that ye cannae even stand!”

Valdemar was on his feet before Jamie had barely finished his sentence and though the Dane towered over the young Scot, Jamie met his furious gaze unflinchingly and refused to back down.

For a long moment they stood that way, faces burning with pent up fury, but neither making a move.

Then Valdemar did something that Jamie did not expect. He laughed.

Jamie looked on in bewilderment as the Danish giant exploded with merriment and then was embarrassed to be enfolded within a bone crunching embrace. Valdemar slapped Jamie on the back and held the young Scot before him at arms’ length.

“Come, Jamie of the clan McCrimmon. I like a man with the courage to stand up for himself. If you hadn’t I might have filleted you there and then with my fish knife. Take me to the Doctor and let us see what he needs!”

With that Jamie walked out of Heorot alongside Valdemar, with the mighty warrior’s arm draped across his shoulders.

 

By the time the Doctor had finished preparing his plan the sun was nearly finishing its descent below the horizon. A flock of bats swarmed across the moonlit sky as the final rays of daylight were carried away by the coming of night.

Everyone was gathered in Heorot and it was business as usual around the great table as warriors feasted and drank. Songs were sung and stories exchanged and the Doctor and his friends found themselves swept up in it all, though they still abstained from drinking the mead.

“So, Doctor Beowulf…” Hrothgar declared at one point, turning to the Doctor at his right hand side.

“Please, just Doctor is fine, I assure you!” the Doctor interrupted, he was beginning to tire of his newly acquired, elongated title.

“Doctor…” Hrothgar corrected obligingly before continuing, “There is one thing that has troubled me since you told me the true purpose of the stone.”

“Oh yes? And what would that be?” the Doctor wondered.

“If it is a beacon, as you say, to bring others like Grendel, then that means we can expect more of these beasts to come to my hall?” Hrothgar asked.

The Doctor gave the king a reassuring smile. “Oh I wouldn’t worry about that. I switched the beacon off when I was examining it. The Grendel’s people will have lost the signal.”

“But the signal had been calling to these beasts for six days before you… switched it off? Could it be that they may be close enough not to need the signal?” Hrothgar pressed.

“I suppose it is possible, yes.” The Doctor conceded, “Don’t you worry, my lord. Let’s deal with the one that we have already here and let me worry about the possibility of others afterwards.”

“Very well, Doctor, I shall trust you. I only hope that my trust will not be unfounded.” Hrothgar replied.

“I hope so too.” The Doctor muttered to himself darkly.

It was then that there came a banging from the newly assembled doors.

The Doctor and Jamie leapt into action immediately.

“Right, Jamie, you and Valdemar both know what you must do. Victoria you stay back up here with the king and queen.” The Doctor instructed.

Jamie and Valdemar and around a dozen other warriors, all big, muscular ones, ran to take up their position to the left side of the buckling doors so that when they opened they would be on the creature’s right side.

“What are you going to do, Doctor?” Victoria asked fearfully as she shuffled ever closer to the queen.

“I’m going to have a chat with our monster!” the Doctor beamed before starting to walk down the centre of the hall towards the besieged doors.

The Doctor came to a halt just a few feet away from the doors, just as they burst inwards and Grendel strode in.

The creature was just as Hrothgar had described it, the Doctor had hoped that the king had embellished some of the details, but unfortunately he had not.

It did indeed stand well over eight feet tall on long, taut sinewy legs encased in some sort of metal space armour. Then the Doctor realised that it wasn’t armour… the metal actually was Grendel’s legs. He was clearly some sort of cyborg. The whole right side of his body was cybernetic, down to the electrical cannon that crackled in the place where his arm should be. The organic part of it was coloured a sickly pale pinkish-white and along with its red eyes and rodent like features the Doctor was put in mind of a hideous travesty of a mutated cybernetic laboratory rat. Its massive hand bore three fingers and a thumb, each ending in hooked talons that could have swiped a shark out of the water. The teeth in its mouth were yellow and serrated like a rusted saw. Across its back there was slung a huge yawning sack, more than big enough to contain three or four fully grown men.

The creature paused and looked down when it noticed the Doctor standing defiantly before it. It paid no heed, however, to the length of brown leather rope that hung suspended from the rafters, its end tied into a noose.

“Who are you?” the creature addressed the Doctor in a voice that sounded like it was trying to speak through a mouthful of treacle.

“I’m the Doctor and I’m here to give you a warning, Grendel.” The Doctor announced.

The creature chuckled in amusement at this.

“You… would warn… me?” it spat scornfully.

The Doctor continued, undiscouraged by the creature’s lack of concern.

“Allow me to assist you in repairing your ship so that you may leave here in peace. Refuse and I shall be forced to destroy you so that I may protect the lives of these people.”

The creature laughed again for longer this time, but once it was finished its rodent features became serious.

“Destroy me if you can. Nothing can stop the Grendel!” with those words it raised the electrical cannon. As the barrel of the weapon swung towards the Doctor it passed through the noose of the dangling rope.

“Now, Jamie!!!” the Doctor called.

Over in the corner behind the doors Jamie, Valdemar and the other warriors pulled hard on the rope they had been holding onto and tightened the noose around the Grendel’s weapon. Then they all began to pull as one as if they were in the tug of war of their lives. The rope had been draped over one of the beams in the ceiling of the hall and as they pulled the Grendel felt his weapon arm being tugged away from the Doctor and up towards the ceiling. Grendel snarled furiously and pulled back in the other direction. Jamie and the other men felt themselves being drawn towards the monster, but they dug in their heels and pulled harder and steadily the Grendel’s weapon arm rose again.

As they pulled and pulled the arm was raised higher and higher, and yet Grendel never once ceased to fight. For all their pulling, Grendel’s feet never left the floor and as the warriors pulled the weapon arm higher with each mighty tug it became clear that something would have to give.

That something was Grendel’s arm. The creature squealed in agony as his cybernetic limb was torn slowly from his shoulder, despite his best efforts to resist. A mix of blood and oil erupted from the ruptured limb as the arm came free and the warriors cheered at their victory.

With its mighty hand clasped to its ravaged shoulder, the Grendel cast a look of hatred at the Doctor, who looked on impassively, before turning and fleeing into the darkness, carried swiftly on its cyborg legs.

Heorot erupted into a cacophony of cheering.

“Your scheme worked, Doctor! Heya!” Hrothgar proclaimed. He leapt from his throne and strode up to the Doctor to encircle him within a manly embrace.

“Well I can’t take all the credit.” The Doctor grimaced as he felt his breath leave his lungs, “Jamie, Valdemar and your warriors did most of the hard work. All I did was put him in the right place.”

“You will all be greatly rewarded for the part that you played.” Hrothgar declared as he finally released the Doctor.

“Well, there is still the matter of taking care of the Grendel’s ship and making sure that no others of his kind can come here.” The Doctor reminded him.

“Surely that can wait until the morning, good Doctor? Tonight… we feast!”

And they did. As the Doctor looked around the table at all the merry faces his gaze came to rest upon Victoria, sitting across from him at the other side of the table. While nearly everyone else in the hall was smiling and laughing, even Jamie, she was looking grim and disgusted. She must have realised that the Doctor’s eyes were upon her because she looked up and returned his gaze.

“That was horrible.” He heard her say, even across the noise of merriment.

“Yes,” the Doctor agreed sadly, “It was.”

 

The following morning the Doctor ventured out, accompanied by Jamie, Hrothgar, Valdemar and a retinue of other warriors. They rode out towards the marshes. Jamie complained the whole way about a hangover, but the Doctor could spare no sympathy for the consequences of his friend’s reckless revelry.

  Half way into their journey they came upon the giant corpse of the Grendel, dead from loss of blood. Some of the men stayed behind the burn the monster’s body on a funeral pyre while the rest rode on.

When they reached the marshes Hrothgar showed the Doctor the area where he had found the Grendel’s distress beacon. The Doctor asked Hrothgar to give him the stone.

Once he had it he surprised everyone by removing his frock coat and handing it to Jamie before diving into the deep waters of the swamp. The Doctor disappeared beneath the surface and didn’t come up again.

Jamie wanted to dive in after him, but Hrothgar held him back.

“I’m sure the Doctor knows what he’s doing, lad.”

And so they waited.

They had waited for over an hour before the Doctor’s head broke the surface of the marsh.

He clambered out, drenched to the skin and Jamie came forward, wrapping the Doctor’s coat about his shoulders.

“What did you do down there?” the young Scot asked.

“Wait and see.” The Doctor replied with a smile.

And so they waited again, though not as long this time. Five minutes later a massive triangular metal leviathan breached the surface of the marsh and rose into the air propelled by jets of lime green plasma. It continued to climb up and up and up until it disappeared into the clouds where it kept on going until it left the atmosphere and sped away from the Earth as quickly as its engines could carry it and somewhere inside, the distress beacon sent out its signal to any Grendel that might be listening, but leading them away from the planet Earth.

“The damage wasn’t all that hard to repair, though I’m guessing it was beyond the capabilities of our late Grendel friend. Once I’d fixed it I programmed in a course that would take it and the distress beacon very far away from here and I wiped the black box of all record of it ever being here. When the other Grendel finally catch up to it they’ll find an empty ship and I’ve no doubt they’ll wonder what became of its occupant, but wherever their investigations might carry them, they will not be able to trace it back to here. I’ve made sure of that.” The Doctor assured them all a little smugly.  

“You will be rewarded greatly for this, Doctor!” Hrothgar declared.

 

As soon as they had arrived back at the village the Doctor and Jamie collected Victoria and quietly slipped away in the TARDIS.

Hrothgar heard the strange wailing that heralded its departure and went outside to investigate.

He was just in time to see the blue box fade away forever, carried away by the wind.

“Hrothgar! Come quick! A ship has landed at the beach!” came the cry from one of his men soon after.

Accompanied by a retinue of warriors, Hrothgar road out to meet this new comer.

When they arrived there was a tall, broad shouldered bear of a man waiting, surrounded by warriors of his own.

“And who might you be?” Hrothgar challenged.

The large man removed his helmet, shaking loose a sandy mane of long, braided hair.

“You may call me Beowulf, my lord! I have come to kill your monster!”

 

**The End**


End file.
